Asian workers protest during May Day parade

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May Day parades by hundreds of thousands of Asian workers were transformed into angry protests over the rocketing price of food and wages that no longer put rice on the table.

The demonstrations, which turned violent in some of Asia’s capitals and were met by mass deployments of riot police from Istanbul to Manila, came as Rajat Nag, the director-general of the Asian Development Bank, declared that a billion people across the region were seriously affected by the recent food price surge.

But even as governments struggle to quell rising unrest, leading Asian economists said that misguided policymaking bore heavy